To get a better understanding of who The Unguided actually are, how the band came to be, and what variables were in play behind the project, we have to travel nearly a decade back in time. In the year 2002 the Sjunnesson brothers formed a melodic metal band called Fallen Angels. The rumors of Fallen Angels spread outside the boundaries of Sweden quickly. As a result, their effort of Extinction began to dig its vicious hooks into Scandinavia, Europe, and across the Atlantic Ocean. In 2004 The American label, Pivotal Rockordings, inked a deal with Fallen Angels to record their debut album. The debut album of Fallen Angels was entitled “Eden Fire”. During the recording of the album, Fallen Angels coincidentally encountered a very peculiar figure, which came to be an important force later on in their career. His name was Roland Johansson. He was not only a man with a huge amount of character, and a chronic flow of practical jokes, but also a man with a spectacularly powerful, melodic voice. On the debut album Fallen Angles wanted to introduce clean vocals.
In 2005 Pivotal Rockordings released Eden Fire upon the world. Two weeks before the release of the album, however, it was decided to rename Fallen Angels to Sonic Syndicate for obvious reasons. The most objective reason for the name change was to avoid legal issues. Sonic Syndicate got more gigs than ever before after the debut released, and pierced their way through numerous amounts of shows across Sweden.
Shortly after the release of “Only Inhuman”, the band set off for their first Europe tour, out of many to come. The tours almost overlapped each other during these years. It seemed as if the world was the band’s very own playground during this timeThe band released the next album “Love and other Disasters” once again through Nuclear Blast. And somewhere in this surrealistic state of constant touring, the band felt a significant change in Roland. The passion for what we had involved ourselves in seemed to die out and fade from him, and during the end of the summer of 2009 singer Roland left the band. Nervous fans asked themselves what direction Sonic Syndicate would take next. This was the very same question answered for Richard during the writing of the new album.
The band and its fundamental support sources made a decision to walk down the commercial road for the next album. Richard was not pleased with this outcome, seeing that he started the band with the intention to create music with a heavy musical style. Because of this, he saw no personal gains in performing something that he despised. Early in 2010, Richard voiced his concern to his brother Roger, and also revealed he was going to leave the band when the time was right. In March 2010, Richard registered the domain WWW.THE-UNGUIDED.COM. Symbolically, The Unguided was to be the project name for both Richard and Roger’s upcoming musical endeavor. The Unguided formed because of one main intention—to enforce the classic song writing of Sonic Syndicate. Soon after, the song writing process commenced in secret, behind closed doors from the rest of the world.
In November 2010, Richard announced the name of his new band, The Unguided, along with a new logo design. He did not reveal the secret familiar individual, however. Roland was not introduced as the mysterious, secret band member until the end of November. His newly announced presence in the band was cleverly featured in the format of a nostalgic video, showing Richard and him working together once again for the first time since Roland parted from Sonic Syndicate.
The Unguided headed into The Abyss recording studio in Pärlby – Sweden to record Nightmareland. Jonas Kjellgren would record, produce, and mix the EP. Jonas had previously worked on former Sonic Syndicate albums, such as Only Inhuman, Love and Other Disasters, and Burn This City EP. It was important to work with Jonas because he was a very big contributor to the classic sound of Sonic Syndicate. This was the first public studio recording since 2008 of the vocalist duo Richard and Roland. The new band also inked a deal with the Swedish label, Despotz Records. Early in March 2011, The Unguided and Despotz records introduced the EP “Nightmareland” to the fans. “Nightmareland” was well received and a good preview of things to come. It sold the most in Sweden, Germany, USA, UK, Holland, Australia, Norway and Finland (in that order).
Early October 2011 the album artwork and title was released. Album entitled to “Hell Frost” as a direct contrast to Eden Fire. The artwork illustrates a male winged demonic character with green eyes. Also the track list for the debut album was featured:
01. Inherit the Earth
02. Phoenix Down
03. Betrayer of the Code
04. My Own Death
05. Serenade of Guilt
06. Collapse my Dream
07. Green Eyed Demon
08. Iceheart Fragment
09. Pathfinder
10. Where the Frost Rose Withers
11. The Miracle of Mind ( bonus song)
On Richard’s internetblog there’s been rumored Eden Fire references on the album and upon reviewing the track list, this is now hard facts. The titles Serenade of Guilt (Lament of Innocence), Collapse my Dream (Enhance my Nightmare), Iceheart Fragment (Soulstone Splinter), Pathfinder (Jailbreak) and Where the Frost Rose Withers (Where the Black Lotus Grows) where all wordplays on songs of their old debut album from 2005. From the track list we could also see that Inherit the Earth and Betrayer of the code which is old Fallen Angels songs from 2002, have been possibly revamped and rerecorded for the effort. There are also two other Sonic Syndicate references in My Own Death (My Own Life) and Green Eyed Demon (Blue Eyed Fiend/Red Eyed Friend) that certainly made a few fans smile. The 11 track, only included as a bonus on the jakebox edition of Hell Frost would be a cover of the Swedish EBM band Spark!’s song Tankens Mirakel.
That’s the story so far! Pre-orders of the album have flooded the Despotz office The band will also be looking to do a video single for the track Phoenix Down in addition to further preparations for the album release. The time is now; Hell can’t wait for another day.
Source: Press Release
